Motourage

Defending FIM Speedway Grand Prix world champion, Australia’s Jason Crump, took another step in his fight back from a form slump this week, playing a lead role in his Swedish league team’s solid win ahead of the Torun Grand Prix.

Photo Credit: Jarek Pabijan

The 35-year-old Great Britain-based rider has weathered a difficult start to his 2010 campaign, and is hoping that recent results – including his team’s demolition of Lejonen on Tuesday – are an indication of improvement.

Elit Vetlanda broke Lejonen’s home track stranglehold, becoming the first team to beat them at their Gislaved base since 2004. In addition, Crump was the top scorer in his Polish league match for Wroclaw earlier this month.

The three-time world champion, who won the opening Grand Prix of Europe, slid down the standings after a pair of uncharacteristic showings at the Swedish and Czech GP events.

Crump is confident of continued improvement at this weekend’s fifth world championship meeting of the year, the FIM Speedway Grand Prix of Torun at Motoarena Torun in Poland.

“The league races have helped me to work on a few areas, the more time on the bike I get the more confident I become,” said Crump. “The Polish GP will be challenging, there are a number of form riders that will be tough to beat for a spot in the final. It would be good to start putting the pressure back on the top three but it will come down to how I feel on the night, I’m determined to put everything in place properly rather than risking another injury.”

Crump last won the Polish GP in 2001 and is hoping for a good result this weekend in order to climb from fourth on the standings on 43 points. He remains the most successful rider in the current field with 22 victories next to his name, a record which began with his first win in 1996.